NASA officially broke ground for the new Flight Dynamics Research Facility (FDRF) at its Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, on Wednesday. The 25,000-square-foot facility will house the first large wind tunnel to be built by the agency in more than 40 years. According to NASA, the wind tunnel will be used for research supporting areas such as entry, descent and landing for missions returning from the Moon and Mars, exploration of Venus and Titan, sustainable aviation, advanced air mobility and experimental aircraft.
“What we’re going to do with this facility is literally change the world,” said NASA Langley Research Center Director Clayton Turner. “The humble spirit of our researchers and this effort will allow us to reach for new heights, to reveal the unknown, for the betterment of humankind.”
The FDRF will be replacing four buildings at the NASA Langley Research Center including the 12-foot Low Speed tunnel, built in 1939, and the Vertical Spin Tunnel (VST), which has been used for research since 1941. NASA noted that the FDRF will have significantly improved capabilities, offering increased dynamic pressure, increased Reynolds numbers and less free-stream turbulence along with reduced maintenance and operating costs. Construction is scheduled to be completed by late 2024.
Doesn’t look like the right facility for Boeing to use for low speed airliner Loads, and Stability and Control. They’ll have to continue travelling to the UK to the QinetiQ facility in Farnborough. Before retiring, I did Loads wind tunnel work for 15 years.
A good tunnel is an asset. The worlds best are privately run.
“What we’re going to do with this facility is literally change the world,” said NASA Langley Research Center Director Clayton Turner. Can we just cut out the hyperbole aimed at the technical ignoramuses who run the federal government? And stop using buzz words like “sustainable” to appear the enviro extremists. I’ve visited numerous wind tunnels in my 40+ year engineering career. The most advanced was the private tunnel in Switzerland built by Sauber for Motorsports.
“the first large wind tunnel to be built by the agency in more than 40 years”
Well, yea, because we arleady have a hundred years worth of data on the subject and CFD is superb at filling in any gaps. You don’t change the world by redoing old tech and redoing old missions. I agree with Kent that better testing is already being done.
I remember long ago when people would be proud that the US has a unique research and development facility that enables our industry to stay ahead of the world in aeronautics and exploration. This facility is geared directly to the areas that CFD is not very good at. And where is this better testing already being done for atmospheric entry parachutes and vertical takeoff systems? Hint: Not at a wind tunnel for automobiles. And if tunnels are useless, why doesn’t the free market use CFD instead of “the most advanced” wind tunnel?
How about that the old tunnels are inadequate for hypersonic research. Why was this omitted from their press release? Oh…..I guess we’re too stupid to figure that out on our own.
NASA would do well to select narrators that have better diction; parts of this were barely intelligible.
Also, regarding why this was built when other tunnels would suffice? NASA has pork project grants just like every other agency that has to be used or lost. The good news is that more in lower-turbulence will give better results for drag reduction methods.
The narrator’s diction was just fine. I listed at 1.5x playback speed, and I made out every word. Maybe if you used a good headset?
Supersonic speeds?
Objection: some people are not as good at hearing.
Aircraft have to cover wide range of conditions.
And the bleep wants people to buy a headset instead of NASA smartening up and getting better recording equipment and/or choosing narrators on theatre terms (diction, projection, pace)?